


Practicality

by Wallwalker



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Age Difference, Community: fic_on_demand, F/M, Rare Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-01
Updated: 2009-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The two share a quiet moment in the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practicality

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted for misura and haku_kaen at [Fic on Demand](http://community.livejournal.com/fic_on_demand) at Livejournal.

Cyan had been in the Figaro library for what felt like hours, reading and re-reading ancient books, trying to make some sense out of the world.

In this shattered new world, Cyan had to admit that he was completely out of his league. His many years in Doma had not prepared him for any of it; Doma had its stories, and a great many of them, but very few actual legends and prophecies. After all, Doma is - or was, he remembers with a sharp pang - a deeply practical nation. But suddenly even the most outlandish legends had proved to have some basis in fact, and it was starting to bother Cyan's sensibilities. He'd seen too many things that had no _right_ to exist. He'd seen the ghosts of his wife and his son, begging him to forgive himself, and he'd seen monsters that fed on his rage and made him helpless, even for all of his strength....

"Is something wrong?" Terra asked from somewhere behind him, in a soft voice. Cyan couldn't help but jump; he was used to being able to hear people as they walked in, but he had not heard her at all.

"I beg your - ah, I mean... no," he finally manages. "Forgive me, Terra. I fear I do myself little service with these sleepless nights."

"It's all right. I don't think anyone's sleeping very well lately." She was smiling a little as she sat next to him, tucking in her skirts that she'd been wearing when he'd seen her with her children; it was matronly look, much more practical than the skimpy red dress she'd worn when he'd first met her. It seemed out of place on such a youthful figure, but in a way it made him feel more comfortable around her. "I barely slept for weeks when I first found Mobliz," she continued, "because Phunbaba was attacking them almost all the time back then. After a while, I think that I was seeing things that weren't there. It wasn't pleasant."

"So I would imagine." He looked at her carefully. Was he imagining those dark circles under her eyes? "And now, Miss Terra? Canst thou not sleep?"

"Well..." She took a deep breath. "I can most of the time. But I keep thinking about the children. I mean, I'm sure that they're okay, but..." She shook her head. "I know that I have to do this to keep them safe. I just wish that they could be here too."

Cyan nodded, swallowed around a lump in his throat. "I understand completely," he said simply, and took her hand. "If there is anything that thou might wish of me, to help thy children... please, tell me. I am at thy disposal. I do not wish to see any more children suffer." Or their mother, he added to himself - Terra was kind and lovely, and he could not deny that he felt... _close_ to her, somehow. He might be a foolish old man, but he knew his own heart... although he would never force his attentions on her when she did not want them. And he did not want to rush into love again... not after all that he'd lost.

She smiled a little more as he spoke, and squeezed his calloused hand back in hers. She had callouses too, from years of holding a sword, along with shiny burn marks on her arms, and darker markings that Cyan did not recognize. "Thank you," she said.

Cyan smiled back. "'Twill be all right, Terra," he said. "I feel it in my bones."

"I hope you're right, Cyan." There was another long moment before Terra pulled her hand away - reluctantly, it seemed, although Cyan couldn't be sure if she was actually reluctant or if it was only his imagination. "You don't mind if I stay and read with you, do you?"

"Of course not." Cyan pushed the book further over so that she could read it too. "Thou needst no permission from me, Terra."

"Cyan..." She smiled again, then seemed to remember herself and shook her head. "Thank you," she managed, then leaned down quickly to read, as if she had suddenly realized that she was embarrassed.

It might've inflamed a younger man, but Cyan, like his former countrymen, had a very pragmatic soul. If there was anything there, he could wait. He could be certain before he spoke of it.

Terra sat with him in the library and read with him for hours.


End file.
